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Category Archives: Les Miserables

Sorry for the long absence – been terribly busy with school and whatnot, so I decided to leave you with my short story for a long time. Glad you all enjoyed it! Your comments totally made my day. : )

So. Over at Rambings of a Janeite, Eva is hosting a totally awesome Barricade Boys Week, dedicated totally to My Boys, who star in Les Miserables. (Yes. They star. Do not argue.) So far, there’s been tournaments, giveaways, quotes, sob-inducing guest posts on Enjolras and Gavroche (especially the latter…. Amy, you have no compassion on my poor nerves!!), and general awesomeness! If you’re a fellow Mizzer and have some time, you should definitely check it out.

I’ve finally found the time to answer her questions! And, instead of just writing “Enj, because he’s awesome” as the answer to every question, these will be well-thought-out answers. So there.

Do you know about the barricade boys from the brick, the musical, the movie or all three?

A little of all three. : ) I’ve never read The Brick (shame, shame…), but I’ve read enough quotes to know that I’m going to read it as soon as I’m done with the book I’m on. : )

Who is your favorite barricade boy?

Enj. Because he’s awesome.

(Behold. The exception to my promise. : D)

Seriously, though, he’s honestly the best. Strong, resolute, totally determined to see the revolution through, and willing to do whatever it takes to make France free again. He’s got some of the best lines in the musical (“Have you asked of yourself what’s the price you might pay?” comes to mind). All of the Les Amis look up to him, which means there’s something to be said about his character and what makes people look up to him. He’s also got some awesome hair and an amazing sense of style, no matter who plays him and whether or not he’s wearing The Vest of Power and Awesomeness. (Because, come on, y’all – didn’t Aaron do a good job pulling off the non-Vested Enj? Yes, we were all sad to find out that he wasn’t going to wear The Vest, but we got something totally awesome instead, right?)

Who is your least favorite barricade boy (yes…I’m forcing you to choose)?

Nooooo…. *insert sad picture of Courf crying* Alright, fiiiiine. I think my least favorite would be Bahorel or Bossuet, simply because I didn’t know their names until recently or anything about them. BUT. That will all end after I read The Brick. : )

What is your favorite barricade boy quote (can be from the brick or one of the songs – or both)?

Now, in this, I fear I cannot satisfy you. I have added an ‘s’ to the word ‘favorite’ and changed ‘is’ to ‘are.’

From the musical –

“Let us die facing our foes – make them bleed while we can! Make ’em pay through the nose! Make ’em pay for every man! Let others rise to take our place until the earth is free!”

“It is time for us all to decide who we are…. Do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now? Have you asked of yourselves what’s the price you might pay? Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play? The color of the world is changing day by day….” (Then comes one of my favorite Barricade Boys song. *nods*)

“Drink with me to days gone by. Can it be you fear to die? Will the world remember you, when you fall? Could it be your death means nothing at all? Is your life just one more lie?”

Which barricade boy do you think you have the most in common with?

A friend of mine says I’m like Feuilly, but I think I’m more like Jehan Prouvaire, who likes flowers and walks and books. : )

What is your favorite barricade boy-related song (i.e., Do You Hear The People Sing?, Drink With Me, Turning)?

Do You Hear the People Sing? It’s their call to rise and fight for freedom!

Which one would you most like to have lunch with (and think realistically…even if your favorite is Enjo, if you’re a girl, he definitely wouldn’t go out for a meal with you. Courfeyrac, however, is a different matter 😉

Well, I’d try to ask Enj out and say it’s only to talk about political things, but if he said no, I’d have lunch with Courf or Gavroche. : )

And lastly…a hypothetical (well, the one above was a hypothetical too, but…). How do you think it would turn out if some of the barricade boys helped with your homework? 🙂

Hahahaha…. I can just see Enj making red (*wink, wink*) marks all over my math homework – “Yet another one wrong! Eowyn, you’re no longer a child!” Grantaire would give me some wine, of course. Jehan and I would talk about walks and books. I don’t know about the rest! After we were done with homework, though, I’d take them all to Ikea and we’d build a barricade. *nods*

Suddenly I seeSuddenly it startsCan two anxious hearts beat as one?Yesterday I was aloneToday you walk beside meSomething still unclearSomething not yet here has begun.

Suddenly the worldSeems a different placeSomehow full of grace and delight.How was I to know that so much hope was held inside me?What has passed is goneNow we journey on through the night

How was I to know at last that happiness can come so fast?Trusting me the way you doI’m so afraid of failing youJust a child who cannot know that danger follows where I goThere are shadows everywhereAnd memories I cannot share

Nevermore aloneNevermore apartYou have warmed my heart like the sun.You have brought the gift of lifeAnd love so long denied me.

Listening to Christmas music – old faithfuls like It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (which we have on a record, but can’t listen to because a certain three-year-old brother broke the needle… again…), Marshmallow World, and The Christmas Waltz, and newer songs like All I Really Want for Christmas (I dare you to listen to it and not cry!), Welcome to Our World, While You Were Sleeping, The Christmas Can-Can (heehee…), and Oh, Holy Night (performed by The Voice of Chocolate). I’ve heard people say that they’re tired of Christmas music within the first week of December, but I never tire of Christmas music!!!

Alfred Kralik (Jimmy Stewart): There might be a lot we don’t know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth.Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan): Well I really wouldn’t care to scratch your surface, Mr. Kralik, because I know exactly what I’d find. Instead of a heart, a hand-bag. Instead of a soul, a suitcase. And instead of an intellect, a cigarette lighter… which doesn’t work.

Watching Little Women!! (If I think a movie should be classified as a Christmas movie, who are you to argue with me?! Need I pull the its-my-blog-I-can-do-whatever-I-want-with-it card?)

The fact that The Hobbit and Les Miserables will now forever remind me of Christmas!! WAHOOO!!!

Watching Miracle on 34th Street! Love that movie…. : )

Teaching my little brother about Christmas…. : ) I love listening to his reasons – “Jingle bells and presents!” – then helping him find the real reason – “Jesus when born! And Santa Claus!” (Well, sort of…. We’re still working on it.) (Bunny trail…. Let me just tell you guys that he. Is. Adorable. The fortunate few of you that have met him know how much personality he has! Just the other day, he went out to eat with my mom and one of her friends and her husband, and this adorable little evangelist was asking the man, “Did you know that Jesus died on the cross? And Christmas is about Jesus when born?” And then, at a Christmas party after my violin recital, he stared at an older man for a long time, then told him, point blank, “You… are an old man.”)

My absolute favorite reason why I love Christmas, however, is the fact that it’s actually Christmastime once again. I’ve heard that Christmas is when the world falls in love, and I know that’s been true when it comes to my relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ. I could go on and on about how He didn’t have to be born in a manger – He’s the King of Kings! – or how many things I’ve learned this year, especially in the past month, that make me love Him more…. It seems like everything in my life is drawing me closer to Him! From questioning why people don’t do certain things I’m involved in, like watching The Hobbit or actually celebrating Christmas and asking God to help me find the reasons why I do those things and not just settling for the easy answer (“Just cuz…”), to just learning about Him through church events, the Anger Resolution Seminar by Bill Gothard. No, I’m not perfect (far from it, as you hopefully know!), but I can see myself slowly growing in my relationship with Him. I’m forever thankful for what He did for me, for which, despite all the awful beating this holiday has taken from the media and marketing and millions of other sources, I’m forever reminded of this time of year. It’s something I’ll still be thinking about a lot and I hope you’ll take the time to do the same.

Or, ‘The Post in Which I Include Tons of Pictures.’ (This is when Haley grins and greedily takes in all of the pictures. Heehee….)

My birthday festivities started a few nights before the big day. Like I said in my last post, I cleaned two houses, then came home and made my cake, staying up much past my bedtime. But it was well worth it, as you’ll see from the pictures!!

I literally threw my party together driving to piano lessons with my mom, which is also when I came up with the idea for my cake. My mom said something about us going to go see The Hobbit and I said if it came out a week before, I’d totally go see it for my birthday. But, sadly…. I remembered that I’d wanted to have a hobbit-themed party when it came out, but, due to Christmas parties, now thought it was impossible. Not so! Hey, even if my birthday was like a week before The Hobbit came out, that doesn’t mean I can’t still have a hobbit-themed party!! Instantly, images of hobbit hole cakes flooded into my mind and I grinned. “Mom!!” I giddily exclaimed. “I can have a hobbit hole cake!!!”

(This is when I say, “Non-Ringers/Hobbit fans: Beware of the abundance of hobbit-y pictures to follow.”)

Yes, I baked all this! And all gluten- and dairy-free! : )Now, how does most of this make a hobbit hole cake? I’m glad you asked!

That’s how.(The two little circles flat on the cooling rack were for the windows.)

The windows and (adorable!!) door in the freezer.

This is how I did the top of the cake. Messy-looking, right?! I was a little disappointed and hoped it’d still work!

Almost done! I think I took this picture right after I was ready to put the green-food-coloring-dyed-coconut-flakes on the wet icing, but realized they were still soaking! Whoops! I spread them out on a cookie sheet and stuck them in the oven, then tried to work on the cake while they were speed-drying.

The completed cake! Ain’t it so cute?! Not quiiiite like a real hobbit hole – everybody knows that hobbit holes don’t have vines hanging down from the grassy top – but I liked it. Everything I made the cake out of was edible – and no fondant or marzipan!! I don’t like fondant at all and all of the (five) pictures of hobbit hole cakes (very few – I had very little to base my cake off of!) were made out of fondant. Yuck!

My green door with a knob right in the middle. (At least that part is accurate!)I’m very proud of it. : )

Torn-up marshmallows and homemade icing-covered flax cereal.

My chimney!! I made it out of Nutella, which I added powdered sugar to.

A hobbit-sized wood stack. : )

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My sign I put on top of the cake in the refrigerator. At one in the morning, I thought it was very witty.

The morning of my birthday, my parents went out to eat breakfast with another couple. “Us kids” had the house to ourselves and we made use of it. : )

One of the best things about having a December birthday is the fact that my family can put their presents for me under the tree!! I love it. : ) (These are strewn out because my little brother and I had to feel and shake each one.)

The present that my littlest brother said was a bomb. (It turned out to be an Avengers ball.)

Cutie-pie brother and I!

Me LOVES my Gamgee Landscaping shirt!! (Take notice of the words around the ‘G’.)You can buy your own on Etsy here.

Of the three scarves I got for my birthday, I’ll have to say that this one’s my favorite. My younger sister knit it and even let me try it on a few times to see if it was long enough , then stashed it away. The deal was that she’d keep it til Christmas, but then she found the movie at Goodwill and Mom said to give it to me. : ) I got to wear it to church on Sunday and enjoyed being subtly geeky. XD

This, apparently, is the face Arwen gave my little brother when he said he was going to tell me what he got me for my birthday. A little blurry, but I love it!

After opening presents, we just hung around and watched Horrible Histories videos. : ) This one’s my favorite. (Special thanks to Anne-girl, who first posted the video on her blog! One play and I was hooked!) This is about the time that something occured to me…. I had an apostrophe epiphany and told my sister, “HEY!! Rapunzel got a guy for her eighteenth birthday….”

My parents got home a while later and then we went to my grandparents’ house, where some friends joined us for more present-opening, games, dinner, half a movie, cake, and the other half of the movie. (Ever After, if you were wondering…. If you haven’t seen it, hie thee to Netflix or some such entertainment-provider!)

Me opening presents. So embarrassing with everybody staring at me….(Sunday at church was much worse, however! Everybody sang while I was up front after playing the final song with the rest of the the worship team!)

I’m planning on making some sort of sign to hang below it so that the “carry on” part is covered out. It’ll be dry-erase or something so that I can write different ones depending on my mood. I’m seeing, “Longbourn is lent at last!” or “and Call Sir Percy” or “Enjo has a Red Vest of Power and Awesomeness” or “Bilbo has joined The Company” or even “Hey, it could be worse – NJ could be Marius!”

All the kids playing ImaginIff! So much fun!

Our awesome P-A-R-T-Y plates that can spell a lot of different things (like ‘pray’ or ‘tar’ or ‘rap’) and are very useful for a great many varieties of candy. : )

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Sticking those candles into my work of art was one of the hardest things I had to do all day.

(But it could be worse…. See below.)

The Scouring of the Shire. *sniff*

And that was pretty much my birthday!

Expect the next post I do to be a long, gushy, fangirlish post about The Hobbit. Sadly, I’ll be cleaning a house, then going to two back-to-back Christmas parties on Friday, so I can’t see it opening night…. *sob* But we’re going to the first available showing on Saturday! (Right before a Christmas party at our house… which kind of means I can’t watch it twice in a row….) I’m also really glad Les Miz isn’t coming out on December 14th…. I couldn’t handle the overload of awesomeness!! : )

Still wondering why My Guy missed his chance to proclaim his love for me….~Eowyn~

First, for your viewing pleasure, my The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings inspired nails.

They’re

just practice nails, by the way. I think they turned out pretty well for a first time!

And my Les Miz-themed nails. I’m especially proud of my ‘4’. : )

That’s what my hands look like right now, by the way…. Seriously. One hand is for The Hobbit and the other is for Les Miserables, the awesome movies that are coming out in December (which is the best month of the year). I did them while listening to the completely awesome and very creepy, yet still awesome three part Adventures in Odyssey episodes, “The Labyrinth.”

And it just so happened that the things I’ve been wanting to post about are Hobbit and Les Miz-themed, too! How’s that for spontaneous planning? : )

I’ll start with Les Miz.

Check this out!! I nearly flipped when I saw it on Ally’s blog. Remain calm – and don’t watch it more than three times in a row. It’s not pretty. (I may or may not be speaking from experience….)

Aaaaaand… there are some pretty awesome posters floating around the Internet! I found a few more the other day, available here and here. Javert looks a little weird, but that’s okay because the red ‘Javert’ below him totally makes up for it. This one has to be my favorite, though. Uber cool.

On to The Hobbit!!

This video came out today and I’ve already watched it a few times. Sure, it’s only thirty-three seconds long, but the dialogue between Bilbo and Thorin is sooooo awesome. (And I can’t see Thorin without saying, “It’s Thornton! Look back at me….”)

I knew there was a place where you could watch the trailer with alternate endings, but we were never able to get them to load. And I just found them! Huzzah!

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But the thing about The Hobbit that I’m most ﻿excited about is the music!! I just listened to the entire soundtrack today. In it’s entirety. The whole thing. All. Of. It. And It. Was. Ah.Mazing. Here is the link for you. It’s an hour and forty-five minutes long and the pause button doesn’t work, so I’d suggest you find something good and looooong to do – like math and chemistry and Greek – and listen to it. A few times, if you want to. And let your school take even longer because you’re thinking about what the track titles mean. (‘My Dear Frodo’? Wassup with that, PJ?) My personal favorite songs are all of them, with an emphasis on all of them, but especially ‘My Dear Frodo’ (First the Hobbiton theme, then it’s creepy! Whaaaaaa?), ‘The Adventure Begins’ (It’s so fast-paced and hobbit-y! “I’m going on an adventure!”), ‘An Ancient Enemy’ (Whoooooooaaaaa…. Deep and ominous – that’s how I like it!), ‘RADAGAST THE BROWN’!!! (This one is SO COOL! The electric violin takes the stage and it equals awesomeness. If you don’t want to wait to listen through all the other songs, just click here. It’s awesome. And amazing. And awesomeness sauce. All rolled into one.), ‘Roast Mutton’ (Again, so hobbit-y, but with a dash of foreboding), ‘The Hill of Sorcery’ (Looks like I need to read the book again… And the Radagast the Brown theme is in here a little – awesome!), ‘Warg-Scouts’ (There’s a great John Williams-esque brass part in here, with another pretty awesome cello/bass/timpani solo. So cool!), ‘Riddles in the Dark’ (Which I can’t wait to actually see!! Anyway. This song captures Gollum to a ‘T’! All those tremolos in the string section totally add to the creepiness! And the really long, gradual crescendo at the end – chills, y’all.), ‘Brass Buttons’ (The Warg-Scouts theme in the middle is awesome! I’m dying to see the footage and dialogue during this one! Plus, the end is so awesome. All those grand pauses, then the continuation of awesomeness…. Golly Pete.), ‘Out of the Frying-Pan’ (Golly, jeepers!), ‘A Good Omen’ (Great song! And a really creepy ending – here’s hoping we’ll see Smaug!), then the extended scene song, ‘Dreaming of Bag End’ (The pennywhistle did a little bit of the Hobbiton theme, but a lot of it was new, which I loved!), which was right after ‘Song of the Lonely Mountain,’ the credits song. (And boy, is it worthy of some kind of award!! It totally embodies dwarves and Thorin and The Company. I loved it!! I won’t tell you how many times I listened to it….) You can listen to ‘Song of the Lonely Mountain’ here, by the way. It’s got to be one of my favorite songs on the album. That and ‘Radagast the Brown.’ If you only have time for a few songs, go listen to those.

Wow, that was a lot. I hope you guys take the time to listen to that music, though – it’s totally worth it!! If you’ve already listened to some of the songs, whatd’ya think?!

And all this news about Les Miz!! Goodness gracious. The month of December is already awesome enough (what with Christmas and parties and concerts and recitals and *cough*my birthday!!*cough*) and now it’s going to be even greater. Wow. I can’t wait. I’m going to be reading The Hobbit and probably (hopefully) Les Miserables during my month-long Christmas break (I’ll shout it from the rooftops, I don’t care – I love homeschooling!), so that’ll keep me busy until all these awesome movies come out. Sighhhhh…..

What about you guys? Are you as excited as me? Or is it just me…?

Hoping I’m not the only one REALLY EXCITED about this December….

~Eowyn~

(Oh, yeah…. Bonus Awesome Points if you can correctly guess where the lyrics in the blog post title come from.)

In lieu of the fact that there is a Ramin Karimloo concert going on tonight about an hour away from my house (and I’m not there… *sobs*), I’ve decided to host my own Ramin concert, complete with videos, compliments of YouTube.

Enjoy. : )

Till I Hear You Sing from Love Never DiesHere’s a wonderful song to start us off. It’s the first song I heard Ramin singing and I fell in love with his voice the moment he started singing! Great song from an otherwise not-so-great musical…. : )

The Phantom of the Opera/The Music of the Night from Phantom of the OperaThese are two of my favorite songs from Phantom! I love this version from the 25th Anniversary Concert because Sierra and Ramin are so great together! (And Hadley isn’t afraid to yell, either…. C 🙂

Wandering Child from Phantom of the OperaI can’t say how much I love Ramin’s version of this song! No words for how much I love the way he scoops the notes…. Pure bliss! (And this version has Hadley’s part [whoops, I mean Raoul…] in there, too! Also, check out Hadley’s face when the men are saying “Secure!” He looks so scared!) And I love Ramin’s evil laugh…. : )

Comparing Phantoms – just to prove that Ramin is one of the best Phantoms ever!! (And that last one…. Ick.)

One Day More from Les Miserables (Hey, might as well start with the best!)Ramin is the best Enjolras I’ve ever heard! He comes in with a BANG! right after everyone’s parts lead up to his perfectly. : )

One Day More (Encore) from Les MiserablesI love the look on Colm’s face!

Bring Him Home from Les MiserablesI just found this song…. Love, love, love! : )(If you want to find out what “never happened on the barricade,” click here. Love the look on his face – HA!!)

A Little Fall of Rain from Les MiserablesDidn’t know he sang this, did you??? (Sure beats a Certain Version I know of…. *cough, cough*)

My favorite part about going to see Les Miserables was not the costumes or the sets or the songs or the actors or the story or anything else (although all that came in a very close second!).

The absolute best part, for me, about seeing Les Miz was…

Meeting the actors!!!!!

No joke! I actually got to meet most of the main actors and get their autographs!!!

Let me tell you how I got to do this insanely wonderful thing. (Before I do, please know that I count myself extremely blessed!!! And that I’m not trying to rub it in, I’m just very excited that I got to do this and want to share with you guys!) My friend who also goes to The Fox to see musicals always comes back with autographed stuff be it a bag or a mug or a t-shirt. Always. She even came back from a Celtic Woman concert with all of their autographs on a t-shirt! Anyway, about a month before the day we were supposed to go, I emailed her, basically asking how on earth she always got autographs and if I could. She emailed me back a few days later, telling me that it wasn’t a VIP thing but that anyone who wanted to could. (I’m like, “This is joyous news!! Tell me more!!”) She gave me detailed instructions on where to go to get the actors’ autographs and I thanked her. A lot. : )

So I ended up getting most everybody’s autographs. : )

But guess what else?! (If you haven’t already fainted, you will now.)

My grandma was standing by with a camera!! (Someone get smelling salts!)

So. If anyone is still conscious, I bring you…

Pictures.

: )

Arwen and I, insanely excited while waiting behind the “Barricade,” as a staff member called it. (I giggled when I heard it. HA!) We were some of the first to get there, so we were some of the first to get autographs!! (On our side at least. There was another line on the other side of the back door and sometimes the actors went down there and I got nervous, thinking they would forget about the people on our side!! They didn’t, though… for which I am eternally grateful.) : )

Me and Chasten Harmon, who played Eponine.

Jason Forbach, who played Enjolras, and you can barely see Joseph Spieldenner in front of me, who played Grantaire.

Laura Wiley (Cosette) signing my program. She went down the line on the other side of the door and after she was done talking to everyone down there, all of the actors had gone by and she was one of the last to walk down the street. We ended up walking beside her and got to talk to her for a while! She’s really nice and very soft spoken, which you wouldn’t think after seeing her as Cosette.

The cute and insanely talented Joshua Colley, who played Gavroche. He still had makeup on his face, but I could tell that he didn’t care!

Arwen and me with Max Quinlan, who played Marius. AHH! He was so nice and talked to us for a few minutes, too! (And I liked his curls.) : )

Then, we waited for Andrew Varela to come out. As you may recall from the multiple times I’ve told you, he played our Phantom back in ’09 and I couldn’t wait to tell him what a great job he’d done with both roles! I spotted him and did a little bounce, then watched as he went down the line on the other side of the door. We got to talk to other people, so it passed the time a little, but I couldn’t wait to meet him.

Then, he finally came to our side of the line. : )

Telling him that he’d played our Phantom!! (I look weird in this picture, but I love the look on his face!)

Arwen and me with Andrew Varela, who played Javert!!!

And this is the only picture I have of us with Peter Lockyer. (This is the way he looked in the first few songs, by the way. Afterwards was a wig… and I still can’t believe it! He looks so different in this picture, doesn’t he?) We actually talked to him for a while, asking him how he liked Atlanta. He said it was great, but he was still looking for the place with the perfect biscuit. We laughed and my grandma said, “My house. Or my mom’s house.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s what people have told me!” (I forgot to ask him if he’d been to The Varsity, which doesn’t have biscuits, but is still really good and a must-visit.)

So here’s my program, now made complete because of the awesome autographs on it. (If you double-click, it’ll open up bigger.) : )

And that’s it! The great secret that I’ve kept for these (many, many) months while I’ve done this (insanely long) series of posts on Les Miz. I still can’t believe I’ve kept it a secret for so long because it was literally the best part about going to see Les Miz.